Google has confirmed the existence of a project to build glasses with a heads- …

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Rumors have been floating around that Google is developing a pair of glasses with a built-in heads-up display, and Google confirmed the project's existence today.

"Project Glass," as shown in a Google+ page, outfits the wearer with a sleek pair of glasses with just one small lens worn over the right eye, and a camera. That doesn't mean a working pair actually exists yet—Google said photos of the glasses were posted to "show what this technology could look like" and a video was created "to demonstrate what it might enable you to do."

In the video, a guy wakes up and sees some Android-like icons in his heads-up display. He makes coffee, sees a reminder for an appointment, looks out the window, gets the weather, then receives a text message from a friend asking him if he wants to meet. He replies to the text message by voice while he's eating. The guy walks out the door and heads toward the subway when his glasses tell him subway service has been suspended. Instead, he gets the walking route from his glasses.

Later, he goes into a bookstore, asks "where's the music section?" and is given walking directions to that part of the shop—using the indoor maps technology built by Google. He sees something interesting, says "take a photo of this," and then "share it to my circles" in order to post it on Google+. Then he walks up on top of a balcony, receives a video call, and shares the view from the top of the building with a friend.

In short, the glasses will be designed to do just about everything that can be done using a smartphone, but without the massive inconvenience of actually carrying a device and using your hands. Google hasn't said how close all this is to reality, but here's the video for your viewing pleasure:

How hard would it be to just link the glasses to your actual phone over Bluetooth v4 and then just have the camera, microphone and display on the glasses?

That seems imminently practical.

And it will keep the glasses as svelte as possible without having to worry as much about battery life (I know Android phone battery life isn't great, but it's a whole lot easier to tack on an extended battery to your phone rather than your glasses).

As exciting and very cool as this is, we are already very distracted walking and driving. Surfing the internet while driving a car is very dangerous. Even like the video was doing with the guy crossing the street is dangerous because you're not looking out for cars running the light.

This has very serious impacts for the military too. Imagine if soldiers could tap into classified maps of battlefields with troop positions, share live imagery.. granted, they can do that now but this takes the danger of looking away and keeping your hands occupied with a device.

In short, the glasses will be designed to do just about everything that can be done using a smartphone...

...namely, track your every movement and serve up ads any time you indicate an interest in something.

At least Street View will benefit from all the additional captured images.

I don't believe Google TV serves up additional ads. Android doesn't serve up ads on your phone all the time.

Google can likely sell the glasses for a profit, which will push Android adoption. And they can more information to help your ad profile when you're on your computer. If they served ads on the glasses themselves, I'm sure no one would use them.

Another joke. Just like everything else Google does. They should stick to NES maps.

No one takes Google seriously. They're only worth 200 Billion, with a Carl Sagan B.

Just like Microsoft, they'll be able to ride out 20 years of losses in their non-core divisions, but they clearly have a hard time doing anything profitable outside of advertising and search, like like MS has a hard time making money on anything other than Windows and Office.

Another amazing idea, utterly dependent on a 10x or larger increase in power density of batteries. Either that, or you'll have to clip a battery to your belt that's the size of a smartphone so you can power the glasses that you bought to replace having to lug around a smartphone...?

This is a stupid idea. The technology required for this to actually work *well* is not here yet. Give it 10-15 years -- we need much, much battery technology, as well as significantly improved voice recognition. Google's voice recognition technology is so poor that dictating text on Android phones doesn't work for SHIT unless you sound like a robot and their Google Voice transcripts are an utter embarrassment. Google should stick to improving these areas before they invest money in such a fanciful concept of dubious usefulness.

Another joke. Just like everything else Google does. They should stick to NES maps.

Self driving cars, etc... stuff that can actually seriously change the world as we know it vs. Angry Birds and Twitter clients!

DyDx wrote:

This is a stupid idea. The technology required for this to actually work *well* is not here yet. Give it 10-15 years -- we need much, much battery technology, as well as significantly improved voice recognition. Google's voice recognition technology is so poor that dictating text on Android phones doesn't work for SHIT unless you sound like a robot and their Google Voice transcripts are an utter embarrassment. Google should stick to improving these areas before they invest money in such a fanciful concept of dubious usefulness.

It's a research project. You can't work towards those goals unless you actually... well... work towards those goals. They just don't spontaneously sprint forth from the ether 'when the time is right'.

Another joke. Just like everything else Google does. They should stick to NES maps.

No one takes Google seriously. They're only worth 200 Billion, with a Carl Sagan B.

Just like Microsoft, they'll be able to ride out 20 years of losses in their non-core divisions, but they clearly have a hard time doing anything profitable outside of advertising and search, like like MS has a hard time making money on anything other than Windows and Office.

You do realize the MS revenue has been growing, right? They have a record 2011 with 70B in revenue, and that was with Windows revenue dropping.

This is a stupid idea. The technology required for this to actually work *well* is not here yet. Give it 10-15 years -- we need much, much battery technology, as well as significantly improved voice recognition. Google's voice recognition technology is so poor that dictating text on Android phones doesn't work for SHIT unless you sound like a robot and their Google Voice transcripts are an utter embarrassment. Google should stick to improving these areas before they invest money in such a fanciful concept of dubious usefulness.

If the glasses are just a bluetooth accessory to the computer in your pocket (your phone) then you don't need a massive battery.

This is a stupid idea. The technology required for this to actually work *well* is not here yet. Give it 10-15 years -- we need much, much battery technology, as well as significantly improved voice recognition. Google's voice recognition technology is so poor that dictating text on Android phones doesn't work for SHIT unless you sound like a robot and their Google Voice transcripts are an utter embarrassment. Google should stick to improving these areas before they invest money in such a fanciful concept of dubious usefulness.

Yeah, why bother trying to make something work just because no one else has? The battery tech is irrelevant - the real trick here is the display hardware, and the voice recognition. The display is likely doable, and the voice recognition is software - software that still needs work, but that's kind of what they are doing here.